Anesthesia Coding Alert
31500 Doesn't Allow Separate Billing for Standard Anesthesia
Question Can anesthesia procedures be billed separately for an emergency endotracheal intubation procedure?
New Mexico Subscriber
Answer: No, you cannot. Code 31500 (Intubation, endotracheal, emergency procedure) is not separately reportable with any anesthesia procedure.
The December 2009 CPT® Assistant confirms, “Moderate sedation may be reported in addition to the endotracheal intubation procedure, provided the criteria for reporting the codes 99143-99150 are met.” That means you might be able to submit a moderate sedation code such as 99144 (Moderate sedation services [other than those services described by codes 00100-01999] provided by the same physician or other qualified health care professional performing the diagnostic or therapeutic service that the sedation supports, requiring the presence of an independent trained observer to assist in the monitoring of the patient’s level of consciousness and physiological status; age 5 years or older, first 30 minutes intra-service time) with 31500, but not an anesthesia code from the 00100-01996 range
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